SAAS MedSTAR is the specialist emergency medical retrieval service for the state of South Australia.

Prior to MedSTAR's inception, emergency medical retrievals were carried out by one of three possible teams: one from the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH), one from the Flinders Medical Centre (FMC) and one from the Women's and Children's Hospital (WCH - for paediatric or neonatal emergencies).

As a result, it was decided that one single service based near the helicopter would be more appropriate as it would cut down response times and resolve issues pertaining to which team would be chosen to retrieve the patient/s.

Around 20% of MedSTAR's work involves responding to metropolitan emergencies, such as motor vehicle crashes.

The strength of MedSTAR is their leading Coordination service which uses Nurse Consultants to clinically assess all aeromedical patients needing transfer and then clinically prioritises them [3] escalating the care of patients they are concerned about to MedSTAR Retrieval Consultants.

[4] MedSTAR uses the Royal Flying Doctors Service (RDFS) for fixed-wing aeromedical patients.